


Dragon Tales

by Airu



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-03
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-02-16 00:33:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2249265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Airu/pseuds/Airu





	Dragon Tales

It is silent. All one can hear is the crinkle of pages. Not a soul dares to speak for fear of the dragon’s wrath. If she catches you, she will “shush” you with an arthritis-ridden, gnarled finger. Suddenly, a sound; it is the dragon. Heads snap up, each glad that it isn’t them that has provoked the onslaught that they knew would come.

“What do you mean, this book is late?” she snips out. It matters not that the victim is a child, for the dragon preys on the weak. The girl trembles, amber eyes dart ing  about searching for an escape. There is none. The dragon has dragonets that mingle about, “thoughtlessly” following her every command. Silently, they make sure that she has no way out.

“The book isn’t mine. It is my older brother’s,” the girl quivers.

“Hmm, I suppose that it is possible, as I doubt someone as young as yourself would have a book on Freudian psychology out… how on Earth did you end up with it pray tell?” the dragon asks.

“I-I was organizing the family bookshelf when I found it there.”

“Well, you did the right thing. A weaker soul would put it in an obscure area of the library, making it so the overdue fines would have to be pardoned, for it would fall under being shelved improperly without being checked in,” the dragon’s tone softens. The patrons witnessing the event meet eyes with each other with puzzlement riddling their faces. Only the dragonets act as though nothing is out of the ordinary, though every now and then they jot down a note or two.

The dragon continues talking to the girl for a while longer. Eventually, she calls over one of the older, higher-ranked dragonets to operate the service desk before taking the girl into a back room. Once the door closes , the dragonets begin to quietly—though not quietly enough for most of the library to be unaware of the conversation—confer.

“I told you Amber would be chosen to be invited. That one Evelyn insisted on? She’s too brash for it,” a mid-ranked dragonet, Liz, says smugly.

“But what about Artimis ? She’s brash, but was still was invited to join, wasn't she?” Marlene (a newer addition to the group) asks.

They continued to talk, and sure enough eventually the patrons brushed the incident off. Even some, whom had been coming for years, had no idea.

Well, technically, not so. Behind the desk stands tall a grandfather clock whom had seen it all—seen dragons come and go, and had been there since the library’s founding. I watch every little drama as it unfolds.

This “drama” wasn’t very bad—some past dragons had had to fight off radicals trying for a book burning—the dragon was just testing a new dragonet candidate. In the privacy of the back room, she would invite the girl—Amber, she was named after her eyes—to join the ranks. Usually, it happens quietly, and few catch on. The  dragon and her dragonets are usually avoided, and the patrons don't even notice their other sides. Did Shawn notice how whenever Artimis was at the desk she would let him take out books, even though his fines were over the limit? No, I don't think so. All they knew was that the dragon and her dragonets ran a totalitarian regime, with strict rules that had to be abided by.

And as for Amber… while she was young for a dragonet she did join the ranks. For years she stayed and flourished under the watchful eye of the dragon. When she left—college bound to a wonderful school, I must add—the dragon wrote her a colourful letter of recommendation to become a dragonet at the school’s library.

Now, I’m not quite sure as to what she did within that time, but (as many dragonets have) she returned later on and took the position of the dragon. Through a chance encounter with one many thought heartless, Amber’s life changed. This was as many times people experience, as I quote, “judging a book by  it’s  cover.”


End file.
